The Christian Crusade to control the United States is the most important and consequential religious movement in the country today.
The Crusade is an effort by conservative Christians to seize control of organizations, institutions, and governments for the purpose of re-orienting them in accordance with their notions of Christian faith and practice. Often, they describe this campaign as one designed to return the country to its Christian roots.
It is fair to say that this movement can be understood as three levels of activity.
First, there is the core network of “donors and doers” (as they sometimes self-describe)—wealthy individuals and foundations investing large sums of money into a web of organizations like Alliance Defending Freedom, American Center for Law and Justice, Concerned Women for America, and Family Research Council.
These groups lobby elected officials, organize and train volunteer activists, and develop strategies and blueprints for action used by local and regional organizations (including churches and legislatures).
Second, there are organizations and their leaders and members incorporated for other charitable purposes, such as religious denominations and advocacy organizations. These groups are heavily influenced by the “donors and doers” and regularly mobilize their members for political activity such as voting, marching, and lobbying.
Those of us once (or still) in the Southern Baptist Convention know first-hand how religious networks, practices, and vocabulary are co-opted by larger, stronger political forces to reshape a denomination and mobilize it toward political ends.
Third, there are millions of ordinary Christian people (and some Jews, Muslims, and others) who, while not directly related to any of these political organizations, are nevertheless motivated by them to vote for specific candidates, support particular policies, and donate to identified causes. Most of us know people in this category. Frequently, they do not know how connected they are to the “donors and doers” at the core of this cultural conspiracy.
A very good summary of these things is the 2019 book by journalist Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism. Stewart will be my guest in The Meetinghouse on March 31, 2022.
Abortion is presented as the over-arching issue of this movement, chosen as such from a number of other issues almost 50 years ago. But the longer list of concerns motivating this Christian Crusade include: guns and the right to bear any kind of arms anytime and anywhere; race, including its history, present role in government and institutional action (such as affirmative action), and how it is to be recognized (or not) and taught (or not) in public schools; sexuality, especially the civil rights granted to LGBTQ persons (with a recent focus on transgendered persons); and government (in particular what they call “the administrative state”), especially the federal government’s role as regulator of commerce and its recent history as defender of the rights of minorities.
From the very beginning, the Supreme Court of the United States has been the public target of this Christian Crusade. And by the “beginning,” I mean the 1950s during which the Court ruled that segregated schools were unconstitutional. Following this victory for Black people, White people started a movement to create primary and secondary schools as alternatives to public schools. These were known as segregation academies, a clear and powerful signal that race has been at the center of the Christian Crusade for 70 years. The recent pushback against Critical Race Theory is the contemporary version of that race-based strategy.
Just as these Christian crusades have succeeded in creating a Supreme Court eager to support their agenda, crusaders have also moved into action at the bottom of the pyramid of power: local school boards. From the top to the bottom (and including all manner of elected positions in between), the Christian Crusade is active around the country to put into power those who share their convictions about what is wrong with America and what needs to be done.
Their course of action is often described in terms of the “seven mountains of cultural influence.” This concept was articulated by the late philosopher/theologian John Rushdoony as part of his understanding of a “biblical worldview” and why such a “worldview” should dominate learning and leadership in the United States. He taught, and the Christian Crusaders believe, that people devoted to their version of Christianity (and only those people) should lead (or dominate) these seven sectors of American society: family, government, religion, media, education, commerce, and arts. This political vision is known as Dominionism or Reconstructionism.
Dominionism is not widely known by that name, but versions of this ideology have been in play in the takeover, for instance, of the Southern Baptist Convention and the Republican Party. Both are among many organizations and networks now controlled by people influenced by (or affiliated with) this Christian Crusade and/or Dominionism.
These Christian Crusaders envision a United States with a much more limited government and far fewer regulations on business, products, and institutions. They desire a country that fully embraces Christian ideas and practices, one that gives Christian organizations deference in all matters of operation. In other words, they long for the revival of White Christian America (countering the demographic and ideological trends documented by Robert P. Jones in The End of White Christian America).
Donald J. Trump used the vocabulary and vision of the Christian Crusade to get elected and many of his policies and nominations furthered the goals of the Christian Crusade, even though Trump himself has only marginal ties to the values and ideology of the movement.
While one center of influence in this Christian Crusade remains the “donors and doers” described above, another (largely unknown) cohort of leaders is the loose network of Pentecostal prophets that, from 2007, predicted the election of Donald Trump and even now predict his return to power. When God declares something to happen (so the thinking goes), and it doesn’t happen (such as the reelection of Trump), somebody must have sabotaged the process God was using to bring about certain things. Hence, the Stolen Election, the Great Lie; and the Insurrection.
This Christian Crusade is powerful and largely underestimated by those who are either ignorant of it or resistant to it. It has yet to reach its peak. It is a tsunami of political and religious power that is sweeping over the country. It should not be ignored.
(January 2022)
